Thursday, 7 October 2010

Natural Born Blu-Ray

I've just finished watching Warners' Director's Cut Blu-Ray edition of Natural Born Killers, and I must say Olver Stone's masterpiece looks absolutely stunning. If you've only ever seen the film courtesy of Trimark's 2001 DVD, then I highly recommend an upgrade to the high-def version. Watching the film I could have sworn there were slivers of extra footage I had not seen before - more likely its the exact same cut as the Trimark DVD, but so impressively rendered on the Blu-Ray, I was seeing details more clearly thanks to the wonderful sharp image. Colors are eye-popping - especially the eerie lime green filter used during the Drug Store sequence, and the black and white documentary photography looks marvelous, with plenty of natural film grain. As with the superb image, the audio is a powerhouse, and Trent Reznor's extraordinary mix-tape soundtrack sounds better than ever. This Blu-Ray should be played loud ! In addition, some hard-to-hear dialogue lost in the mix of previous editions, is much clearer here.

Incidentally, Quentin Tarantino was very critical about the film on its release in 1994, but Natural Born Killers preemted Tarantino on at least two counts - Stone's idea of mixing animation in with live action, and dirtying the print would be re-used by Tarantino some ten years later for Kill Bill and Grindhouse. Natural Born Killers is a film you will want to see again and again, just make sure you get the Unrated Director's Cut Blu-Ray, and not the R-Rated Blu-Ray.

One last thing... As I was putting together this post, I was reminded of that unlikely moment when John Grisham weighed into the controversy surrounding the picture when he advised a victim of a gun-shot attack (which was said to be influenced by the film) to bring a case of "product liability" against Oliver Stone and Warners. Grisham wrote in a magazine article in April 1996:

"The last hope of imposing some sense on Hollywood will come through another great American tradition, the lawsuit. A case can be made that there exists a direct causal link between Natural Born Killers and the death of Bill Savage. It will take only one large verdict against the likes of Oliver Stone, and then the party will be over."

I'm squarely on the side of the film (and Cinema) here, but I should mention that John Grisham's friend - the Bill Savage who's mentioned in the quote above was murdered by the so-called copycat killers so he did have a personal interest in burying the film... I'm trying to think of a similar case where a major writer (or cultural figure) launches a crusade against a film but Grisham vs Natural Born Killers is the only one that comes to mind... Not quite the same thing but I remember David Mamet was openly hostile towards Schindler's List, calling it an "exploitation film" and "emotional pornography" And for the record I thoroughly disagree !

Craig, I was just reading something about Natural Born Killers a few days ago and I was reminded of the rather bizarre footnote of John Grisham robustly attacking the film for motivating copycat crimes, going so far as to advise a person who was maimed in one of these copycat crimes to take a "product liability" suit against Warners and Oliver Stone. Grisham writing in a literary magazine said "The last hope of imposing some sense on Hollywood will come through another great American tradition, the lawsuit. A case can be made that there exists a direct causal link between Natural Born Killers and the death of Bill Savage. It will take only one large verdict against the likes of Oliver Stone, and then the party will be over." But the case was ultimately dismissed, the judge ruling that Warners and Oliver Stone did not set out to incite violence with the film...